Alaska Is Home to Over 50% of America’s Last Remaining Blockbuster Video Stores • Page 2

Ryan · Nov 2, 2017

There's actually a small, albeit growing number of mom and pop dvd stores popping up.

sukottokairu · Nov 2, 2017

i live in alaska and honestly i'm surprised there are even blockbusters left here, i haven't been to one in probably close to a decade. of course i have the fond nostalgic memories of going in and picking a movie or game rental off the many walls of disc cases. but there's pretty good internet available at most populated locations now, and great internet in the bigger towns and cities. i have 1 Gbps internet with unlimited data. but, my friend that lives 10 miles down the road has to pay the same amount for 100 Mbps with data caps, so it does vary a lot.

manoverboard679 · Nov 2, 2017

youwontknow said:

When I was 13, my best friend, Sean Chan and I hit the Blockbuster after school on a Friday (as usual) and found a movie called Breast Men. It featured David Schwimmer, seemed to contain a lot of nudity, and was definitely a Restricted (17+ rating). So we thought we would try our luck and rent it. We were so nervous going up to the counter thinking there's no way the guy would rent it to us. But he did (the dude being only about 3 years older than us).

So then we take it back to my house, thinking of what we'll say to my mom if she asks "Breast Men? What kind of movie is that?!" So we walk in the back door of my house, which opens right into the kitchen, and my mom is right there and sees us with our dirty 17+ film. We looked guilty af. But the silver lining was she was on the phone and seemingly long distance 'cause she was pacing the kitchen. She whispered to us, while still on the phone, "what movie is that?" We showed her the spine and she read the title. She furrowed her brow and said "Don't watch that until I look at it first."

Sean Chan and I run into our home study, and with a surprising about of cunning deviousness for a couple of dumb 13 year olds...we open Microsoft Word '97 on the computer. And he quickly reads to me the description of the movie on the back of the Blockbuster paper sleeve. While he reads "17+ for nudity, sexuality and some adult themes" I type on Microsoft Word "PG-13 for course language and violence." We copy the movie summary, year, and duration verbatim and we quickly print this out, cut out our new description of the movie and slide it under the plastic sleeve on top of the real 17+ one, just in time for my mom to walk in and say "lemme see that movie." She looks on the back cover and reads:

Breast Men, PG-13 for course language and violence. 96 mins. 1997.

She says, "Hm, okay. Enjoy your movie." Then we proceeded to head to the basement and watch more nudity than we had ever seen in our youthful 13 year old days.

I love Blockbuster.

This is awesome and I actually remember that cover with the cleavage on the front. Please tell me you really misspelled it as "course" and you're mom just didn't notice haha

personalmaps · Nov 2, 2017

I worked at Family Video for 6 years and they are the worst goddamn company in the world. They treat their employees like absolute garbage. My experience there makes it REALLY hard to feel sentimental about video stores.

aspeedomodel · Nov 2, 2017

The video store in my old home town in Indiana is still alive and kicking. Busy as all hell Friday/Saturday. Makes me happy.

youwontknow · Nov 2, 2017

manoverboard679 said:

This is awesome and I actually remember that cover with the cleavage on the front. Please tell me you really misspelled it as "course" and you're mom just didn't notice haha

Great question. If I'm still accidentally misspelling it at age 33, then it's safe to say I spelled it wrong when I was 13. Haha

zporter92 · Nov 2, 2017

sukottokairu said:

i live in alaska and honestly i'm surprised there are even blockbusters left here, i haven't been to one in probably close to a decade. of course i have the fond nostalgic memories of going in and picking a movie or game rental off the many walls of disc cases. but there's pretty good internet available at most populated locations now, and great internet in the bigger towns and cities. i have 1 Gbps internet with unlimited data. but, my friend that lives 10 miles down the road has to pay the same amount for 100 Mbps with data caps, so it does vary a lot.

Whereabouts do you live?

Jared Luttrell · Nov 3, 2017

That is really cool. I too have a lot of nostalgic memories of Blockbuster from my childhood, it was great discovering new games for N64 and PS1 just be browsing whatever they had.

The Pharmacist · Nov 3, 2017

youwontknow said:

When I was 13, my best friend, Sean Chan and I hit the Blockbuster after school on a Friday (as usual) and found a movie called Breast Men. It featured David Schwimmer, seemed to contain a lot of nudity, and was definitely a Restricted (17+ rating). So we thought we would try our luck and rent it. We were so nervous going up to the counter thinking there's no way the guy would rent it to us. But he did (the dude being only about 3 years older than us).

So then we take it back to my house, thinking of what we'll say to my mom if she asks "Breast Men? What kind of movie is that?!" So we walk in the back door of my house, which opens right into the kitchen, and my mom is right there and sees us with our dirty 17+ film. We looked guilty af. But the silver lining was she was on the phone and seemingly long distance 'cause she was pacing the kitchen. She whispered to us, while still on the phone, "what movie is that?" We showed her the spine and she read the title. She furrowed her brow and said "Don't watch that until I look at it first."

Sean Chan and I run into our home study, and with a surprising about of cunning deviousness for a couple of dumb 13 year olds...we open Microsoft Word '97 on the computer. And he quickly reads to me the description of the movie on the back of the Blockbuster paper sleeve. While he reads "17+ for nudity, sexuality and some adult themes" I type on Microsoft Word "PG-13 for course language and violence." We copy the movie summary, year, and duration verbatim and we quickly print this out, cut out our new description of the movie and slide it under the plastic sleeve on top of the real 17+ one, just in time for my mom to walk in and say "lemme see that movie." She looks on the back cover and reads:

Breast Men, PG-13 for course language and violence. 96 mins. 1997.

She says, "Hm, okay. Enjoy your movie." Then we proceeded to head to the basement and watch more nudity than we had ever seen in our youthful 13 year old days.

I love Blockbuster.

This is beautiful.

coleslawed · Nov 4, 2017

we used to have two video rental places in my hometown. one was massive and had a great selection, the other was pretty crappy but had a 5 for $5 special on older releases, and also connected to a liquor store.
guess which one is still in business.

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Alaska Is Home to Over 50% of America’s Last Remaining Blockbuster Video Stores • Page 2

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